The present invention relates to an apparatus for producing a reinforced compound material with high quality.
Ceramics are produced by preparing a material containing oxide or nitride of silicon, aluminum or titanium etc. as its major component, adding a caking material e.g. nickle, chromium, glass, or cement etc. to the major material, and sintering a resulting material. Ceramics have a high melting point, an excellent heat-resisting property, and high hardness and strength. Because of such properties, ceramics are used for engine parts of an air plane or blades of a high speed turbine. However, the ceramics are not necessarily acceptable in respect of anti-shock property etc.
Further, it has been practice that powdered ceramics, not yet subjected to sintering, are molten or added with water to become a slurry, and sprayed to coat a metal surface. The ceramic coated metal thus obtained is also superior to the conventional heat-resisting alloy in respect of mechanical property at high temperatures. Because of such an excellent property, the ceramic coated metal is used for a combustion chamber of an engine or the like but is likely to be oxidized at a high temperature and its use is limited.
As stated above, ceramics have excellent properties, but no attempt has been made to use ceramics for improving strength of metal and utilization and development of ceramic to this end have been desired. In view of this, considering that reinforcement materials such as fibrous ceramics before sintering called "whisker" or spherical ceramics are formed into a porous body of low density and impregnated with molten metal, the inventors of this application have earnestly carried out many studies and succeeded in developing a novel apparatus for impregnating molten metal.
Other prior art of this kind will be described. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,648 or U.S. Pat. No. 4,287,935 teaches a vertical die casting machine wherein the lower casting sleeve is normally held in vertical alignment with the upper casting sleeve but is inclined to a position lateral to the stationary platen for receiving the molten metal. U.S. Pat. No. 4,431,047 or U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,771 teaches a gas evacuating device for a metal mold provided with a valve mechanism which is automatically closed by making use of inertia force given by the injected molten material. Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 58-221244 discloses an apparatus for producing a compound material provided with pressure reducing means, thus reducing a pressure within a chamber for receiving reinforcement material, thereafter solidifying molten matrix metal while applying a pressure thereto. In addition, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 59-136437 teaches a method of producing fiber reinforced metal comprising the steps of heating reinforcement fibers retained within a cast at a temperature lower than a melting point of molten matrix metal, pouring the hot molten metal into the cast, and impregnating the hot molten metal into the space between the reinforcement fibers by applying a pressure to the hot molten metal, thus solidifying the hot molten metal with the pressure being applied thereto.
As understood from the following description, the above-mentioned prior arts only constitute partial features of the novel apparatus according to the present invention, failing to obtain various advantageous effects of the present invention.